<![CDATA[Interpreting figurative language in the Qur'an requires more than labelling an expression as "indirect": a single expression may be read as literal, as a simile (tasybīh), as a trope (majāz), or as kināyah, and each reading yields a different meaning. Surah Ar-Raḥmān, which presents God's blessings through vivid imagery, exemplifies this problem. To the best of the authors' knowledge, its kināyah has not been examined on its own, and no explicit criteria exist for separating kināyah from other figures in the surah or for testing the role of exegetical explanation. Without such criteria, classifications risk being inaccurate and unverifiable. This study therefore aims to formulate explicit criteria for identifying kināyah, to test and classify candidate verses against them, and to explain the contribution of Wahbah al-Zuhaili's Tafsir Al-Munīr. Using qualitative library research within a textual-linguistic interpretive paradigm, six candidate expressions (Q.S. ar-Raḥmān [55]: 19–20, 24, 27, 29, 46, and 58) were tested against four criteria: the three elements of kināyah (mukanna bih, mukanna ʿanhu, and qarīnah), necessary implication (talāzum), possibility of the literal meaning, and absence of explicit comparison. Two expressions (verse 29 and, conditionally, verse 27) are classified as kināyah ʿan nisbah; two (verses 24 and 58) are tasybīh; and two (verses 19–20 and 46) are literal. Tafsir Al-Munīr mainly supplies meaning and context (qarīnah) rather than the final classification. The findings are limited to the tested verses.]]>
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